Wednesday, July 02, 2008

On Saturday, the Eldest and I went to DukeFest. He is a huge Dukes of Hazzard fan, so I took him to the celebration and after we got there, I got taken to the cleaners. So to speak. I was nickeled and dimed from the moment we went through the gates to the time we left.

It was held at the Atlanta Motor Speedway. Now, let me say up front that I don't do Nascar. Not interested, never will be. But, I was impressed at the size of the place. It was huge. The festival was held in the middle of the track and was tiny comparatively speaking.

We met Roscoe P. Coltrane, sherriff of Hazzard County. He was incredibly nice and still funny. While we were in line to see him though, the Eldest got sick. There was so much sun. It was intense and there was no shade and no place for the poor kid to go to be sick in private. Just portapotties everywhere. So he walked off to the side and was sick all over the place. I felt so sorry for him. He was a trooper though. He refused to leave, there was still way too much he wanted to do and see. I dumped water on his head to cool him off and poured more down his throat and he was fine.

While there we saw Bo Duke (John Schneider) twice. He stood about 10 feet away from us and both times I missed getting a pic, dangit. Let me tell you here and now that the man is mighty fine. I didn't much care for him 20 years ago, but now? He's aged to perfection.

We did meet Adam West, the original Batman. Very self-centered and egotistical. He was charging $80.00 for an autographed pic of him. I can't think of anyone who is worth that. And then, when we finally got a pic with him (he charged for that too) the bozo didn't even look at our camera. The Eldest was impressed with him anyway, even if he was wearing a peach colored "grandpa" shirt. Batman is one of his heros and he loves to watch the original Batman movie.

Lee Meriwether (Catwoman) was there as well and entirely sweet and gracious. I only have a profile pic of her. I've decided that I want to age as gracefully as she has.

What do Batman and Catwoman have to do with the Dukes? No idea. But the original Batmobile was there.(Notice the Batman shirt on the Eldest? He couldn't wait to meet Batman and see the Batmobile.)

There were also mullets galore. Oh, and rednecks wheeling around huge car parts (like hoods) to be signed by the stars. Weird if you ask me. But to each his own. Eldest loved it all anyway and that was what counted. I wasn't there for me anyway. He came away with a new baseball cap and a smile and the day was pretty good over all.

We did some carnival rides there and looked at a bunch of General Lee cars and then it happened. For some reason I started feeling jittery and panic-y. I told the Eldest we were leaving right then. It took an hour to get home and I was so sick by then I was crying when I went in the front door. Mild case of sun poisoning or heat stroke, not sure. This was followed by a massive headache and chills. Not fun, but we're doing just fine now that we're in the shade again. :)

Monday, June 30, 2008

Yes, I missed a day of blogging. Sickness will do that to you. But now, I'm back and strippin' away for your pleasure. Today I'll show you how to strip your, um, Chest.

As I said before, this cedar chest was an old find of my Mom's. Turns out, it's older than we thought. The original tag is still stapled inside it. It's a Caswell-Runyan Treasure Chest originally purchased for $24.95. The chest was produced in a factory that was open from 1907 to 1956ish. It looks to have been made sometime in the 3os or 40s. I've compared it to all the old ads that I can find and those two decades come closest to the look of this chest.

Here it is just after I began applying the gel stripper that I used. You'd think that after several years of blogging that I would learn to take a good before picture prior to beginning a project, wouldn't you?

Before

After

See that little piece of painter's tape? Yeah, bad idea. Part of the front was splitting and coming up. I put glue behind it and then made the mistake of listening to my Father in law who said put tape over it to hold it down. Um, no. Instead of holding it down, it pulled it up further. So. We put it on it's back and put this God awfully heavy vise thingy of the hubby's onto the top of it. That worked. It doesn't look like there was ever anything wrong with it.

I've filled in a few tiny spots with stainable wood filler and will be sanding that and then I'll be able to start the staining. It already looks way different, no?

Wait until you here what the Eldest and I did on Saturday. More on that tomorrow! Oh, and the Secret project will be revealed then as well. See ya!